innovation : Innovation + Job News

A Columbia Association neighborhood center is getting some of its energy from the sun.

ATR Solartech installed 1  ii iininins2 solar tracking systems at the River Hill Pool and the River Hill Neighborhood Center in Howard County's Clarksville. 
 
Robert Lundahl, ATR's vice president of automation systems, says it is also in discussion with the Columbia Association about the installation of a solar car-charging station. The charging station would provide electricity for electric vehicles.
 
However, unlike other such stations, which derive their power from an electrical source, the ATR station would also have solar tracking devices to collect energy to offset the power used by the electric vehicles. 
 
Columbia Association is looking at locations for a station, Lundahl says. 

Lundahl says the River Hill installation is the first the Columbia-headquartered company has completed with the Columbia Association, although talks are underway for other projects similar to River Hill’s.
 
Lundahl says that each of the River Hill systems consists of two solar panels mounted on a motorized tracker that calculates the position of the sun and automatically follows it during the day. The solar tracker produces 30 to 34 percent more energy than regular fixed solar panels, he says.
 
The systems are designed to convert energy to grid-tied power and, on average, will provide more than 26 kilowatt hours per day. The total cost of the 12 systems was $35,000, for the solar trackers, installation and wiring, he says.
 
“With solar rebates and incentives," says Lundahl, “the installation will pay for itself in less than six years," then continue to operate for at least another 15 years.
 

 
Source: Robert Lundahl, ATR Solartech
Writer: Barbara Pash; [email protected]
 
 
 
 

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded a $100,000 grant to a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to improve the health of mothers and children in rural, hard-to-reach areas by increasing vaccine coverage.
 
Dr. Alain Labrique, director of the Johns Hopkins University Global mHealth Initiative, received a Grand Challenges Exploration Grant from the Gates foundation. This is the first time that Labrique and Hopkins’s public health school have received this particular grant although members of Labrique’s team have received other Gates’ grants.
 
“Grand Challenges pioneered funding for innovative research, for researchers to receive seed funding to take their ideas to the next level,” Labrique says. He is working with a team to develop a virtual vaccine registry, called mTikka. Part of the study will look at the impact of mobile phones on rural health delivery. 
 
Labrique says the registry builds on 12 years of public health work in rural Bangladesh, particularly on behalf of maternal, neonatal and child nutrition and survival. His team works in partnership with the Bangladesh ministry of health and family welfare and social enterprise partners mPower Health. mTikka will be test-piloted in rural, remote areas of Bangladesh for future use in other developing countries.
 
The Grand Challenges grant covers a 12- to 18-month long period. Researchers can reapply for another Grand Challenges grant after that but “you cannot hold more than one seed grant at a time,” Labrique says.
 
Grand Challenges grants have two levels, each with its own requirements. The Phase 1 grants are for $100,000 each. The Phase 2 grants start at $1 million. Will Labrique be applying for a Phase 2 grant in the future? “Oh, certainly,” he says.
 
Source: Dr. Alain Labrique, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office and MedChi, the state medical society, are partnering in a program that protects consumers from insurance company abuses. Launched last month, Insurance Watch enables physicians in the state to file complaints online on behalf of their patients.

The Attorney General’s Health Education and Advocacy Unit  has long accepted written claims filed by physicians when an insurance company refuses to cover a patient’s medical care and other insurance payment issues.

MedChi asked to be involved when a survey found that physicians were not filing the paper forms. “We wanted to make it easy for physicians,” MedChi CEO Gene Ransom says.

Physicians can opt to have the complaint sent to the Attorney General’s Office only or to MedChi as well. If they choose the latter, MedChi will monitor the complaint, which often goes to mediation.

According to David Paulson, spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, more than 2,000 complaints were filed in 2011, resulting in over $1 million in claims and recovery on behalf of patients.

With the new, online system, Paulson expects the number of filed complaints to increase. “The doctors are pleased” with Insurance Watch, he says. “It’s a smart way to communicate with them, and for them to communicate with their patients.”

Che Parker, spokesman for Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic, says the health insurer has no objections to the program.

“Doctors and patients are free to use established processes and procedures to surface concerns to insurance regulators and other venues established for that purpose,” he says. “We trust those concerns will be appropriately resolved in those venues.”

Sources: Gene Ransom, MedChi; David Paulson, Maryland Attorney General’s Office; Che Parker, Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic
Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 

The U.S. Army  is looking for a few good men and women. 

The 780^th Military Intelligence Brigade, the Army’s cyber systems intelligence and security unit at Fort George G. Meade, in Anne Arundel County, has embarked on a civilian recruitment effort.

"The Army established this emerging mission," Gregory Platt, the 780th Military Intelligence Brigade's senior civilian advisor, says of cyber threats, "and we are fleshing out the staff."

Over the next three years, the Brigade is hiring a total of 400 employees, starting with about 100 new employees this fiscal year and another 70 to 75 new employees per year until fiscal year 2015. The civilian employees will join 800 active duty military personnel who will work for the Brigade. 

Most of the civilian employees will work at Fort Meade but some will be assigned to Fort Gordon, Georgia, Platt says.

Prospective workers must be fully cleared for the positions. Platt says the jobs require technical and/or computer skills, especially those that apply to cyberspace operations like analytical skills and strategic planning.

“We specialize in operating systems and network topology,” he says. “We are looking for folks with experience and a desire to grow,” he says.

The salaries are competitive with private industry, and can be viewed on the U.S. Army web site, he says.

In 2010, the U.S. Army approved the creation of the 780^th Military Intelligence Brigade, the first of its kind, with help from the National  ecurity Agency, Department of Defense and U.S. Cyber Command, Army and Congressional staff, the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command. In 2011, the Brigade was activated to support U.S. and Army Cyber Commands with their missions to provide a proactive cyber defense. The Brigade was officially activated in the fall.

Source: Gregory Platt, U.S. Army 780^th Military Intelligence Brigade
Writer: Barbara Pash

Baltimore City is spending $150,000 to create a Climate Action Plan as part of the city’s overall sustainability initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 15 percent by 2015.

The city adopted the sustainability plan in 2009 but it wasn’t until this year that there was funding to implement it. Beth Strommen, director of the city’s Office of Sustainability, says Baltimore received $6.1 million from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for a variety of energy projects, among them the climate action plan.

“Our goal is to help Baltimore be a more sustainable city, with environmental education and green buildings,” Strommen says.

But Baltimore has unique challenges.

Unlike many cities where the major source of greenhouse gas emissions is vehicle-related, in Baltimore the emissions are overwhelmingly come from commercial and residential buildings. That's because 40 percent of the housing stock was built prior to 1939.

"We are an old city with old houses," Strommen says. 

The Climate Action Plan will have different short-term and long-term goals, by 2020 and 2030, respectively. Stommen says the city has hired AECOM Technology Corp., a global company with expertise in climate action plans, to create the plan.

The plan will look at such issues as land use, green infrastructure, water and waste.

“We are including an adaptation piece,” says Strommen. “How do we adapt to extreme weather events, and to flooding in the Inner Harbor? How do we minimize economic loss? And, also, minimize loss of life with, for example, cooling centers.”

Strommen did not have a timetable for the plan’s completion. Once it is ready, Baltimore City has already received two grants, for a total of $107,000, to begin putting the recommendations in place. The city is also seeking additional federal and state money to implement the plan.
 
Source: Beth Strommen, Baltimore City Office of Sustainability
Writer: Barbara Pash

RPM Solutions Group has turned a small package into a big win. 

In less than a year, the printing company's small carton packaging division has 50 customers, including out-of-state in California and Kansas.

The economy has taken its toll on the printing industry, Joe Cavey, president of RPM, a 26-year-old commercial printer in Baltimore. Small companies in particular could not afford to use printing services, adds Cavey. So the executive came up with the idea for its Short Run Carton Packaging Division to diversify the business. 
 
RPM prints books, pamphlets, brochures, pocket holders and other material. It also does digital printing with variable personalization and has in-house mailing capabilities.
 
The carton division makes small-size containers in small numbers or, in the jargon, runs, from 500 on up to 10,000. The biggest container it makes is 12” wide by 12” deep by 6” tall.
 
Cavey says the small-size containers are used by a variety of companies, including startups, private labels and companies that are rebranding. Cosmetic firms, software firms, pharmaceuticals and confectioners are among its clients. 
 
“They don’t need 20,000 or 30,000 containers," Cavey says of RPM's clients. "They need 1,000 or 5,000 packages to put eyeliner, mascara or soap in,” he says.
 
Customers can provide RPM with their logos or the company will create one for them.
 
Cavey figures he has a handful of competitors on the East Coast.  “We have found a niche for the short runs.”
 
He is operating the carton division with his current 28 employees but says he may hire more staff as it grows.
 
Source: Joe Cavey, RPM Solutions Group
Writer: Barbara Pash

Veolia Transportation launched the first taxi fleet in Baltimore powered by propane gas last Friday. Baltimore is the second city in the national transportation company’s roll-out of propane-powered taxis, with Denver first and Pittsburgh to follow.
 
Veolia is starting with 25 taxis in Baltimore but expects to add another 25 taxis in the next month, for a total of 50, as parts arrive. Dwight Kines, regional vice president for Veolia, says the propane tanks can be installed in any full-size automobile. In Baltimore, they are being installed in the Ford Crown Victorias that the fleet uses.
 
Veolia is Baltimore City’s largest operator of taxicab services. Operating under the names Yellow, Checker, and Sun Cabs in Baltimore City, and Jimmy’s Cab in Baltimore County, the company has a fleet of nearly 700 vehicles.
 
Kines says that of its 580 taxicabs in Baltimore City, 430 are privately-owned and 150 are company-owned. “Eventually we will convert all of our cabs to propane and will offer [conversion] to the private owners,” Kines says.
 
So far, private owners have been reluctant to convert to propane but Kines expects that to change as gas prices rise. The company installed a fueling station for propane, a form of natural gas, which currently sells for $2.45 per gallon. With gas, a Ford Crown Victoria gets 12 miles per gallon; with propane, 23 to 25 miles per gallon.
 
“We get fuel economy and a cheaper cost per gallon,” Kines says, adding that because propane is a “cleaner” fuel” than gas, there is less air pollution and also less wear on the vehicle’s engine.
 
The company looked at other clean energy options like electric vehicles, but decided on propane. Veolia received a grant from Virginia Clean Cities for the propane conversion. The Southeast Propane Autogas Development Program, a public-private partnership, provided the grant money to Virginia Clean Cities.
 
Veolia operates in about a dozen cities. Kines says that after Pittsburgh, the company is considering Kansas City, Mo., and Jacksonville, Fl., for further roll-outs. Eventually, plans call for a total of 300 of its cabs nationwide to be converted to propane.
 
“We are setting an example,” he says of the Baltimore roll-out.  “We hope other fleets in the city follow our lead.”
 
 
Source: Dwight Kines, Veolia Transportation
Writer: Barbara Pash; [email protected]
 



 
 
 
 
 

The Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship, an initiative of the Howard County Economic Development Authority, wants to ignite entrepreneurship in the county. To that end, the development authority is sponsoring its first-ever Race for Innovation, and hoping that it is the spark the sets the fire.
 
The event is scheduled for Tues. June 19 from 1 to 5 p.m. at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel.  
 
The idea is for teams to work with coaches to develop ideas into business concepts, which are then pitched to investors.

"We want to drive more innovation and ideas” in Howard County, says Julie Lenzer Kirk, director of the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship, located in the development group's Columbia office. “At the same time, we want to bring intellectual property” into the county.
 
Gloria Jacobovitz, program director, calls the event “high energy.” Says Jacobovitz, “We came up with the idea to help business development. An event like this usually takes a weekend but we will do it in a few hours.”
 
Jacobovitz notes that the event gives entrepreneurs and start-up companies an opportunity to interact with investors. “They are going to work together. It will create synergy between them,” says Jacobovitz, who expects 100 participants at the event.
 
The Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship was launched in December 2011. The event is an attempt to branch out to the broader entrepreneurship community, says Kirk, and thus it is open to all, not only Howard County residents.
 
“We are hoping to start a bunch of new jobs in Howard County,” Kirk says. “That’s why we are doing this event.”
 
Sources: Julie Lenzer Kirk, Gloria Jacobovitz, Howard County Economic Development Authority, Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship
Writer: Barbara Pash, [email protected]

Parking Panda, the Baltimore startup that finds a spot to put your car, is cruising into new cities and attracting new funding.

Within a few months, it will begin marketing in Philadelphia, its third site. San Francisco, Chicago and Boston are next on the list. Last month, it expanded to Washington, D.C. The company recently received $250,000 from investors, with another $250,000 in the works, CEO Nick Miller says. Miller founded the firm in 2001 with Adam Zilberbaum, chief technology officer. 

The company doesn't have exact dates for the expansions after Washington, D.C., says Miller. In part, it depends on demand and how many parking spaces can be arranged. 
 
Parking Panda locates available parking spots in private driveways and garages that drivers can reserve in advance on the web or via mobile phones. In Baltimore and Washington, D.C., it is working with two garage companies, PMI and Central Parking.
 
In addition, Parking Panda works with private home-owners and small business to rent their driveways, parking lots and garages. “We have quite a few private driveways that are rented for Ravens [football] games,” says Miller, who tries to line up parking for other events like festivals and farmers markets.
 
Also, he adds, “we work with certain neighborhoods, like Federal Hill,” where on-street parking is scarce and there are no parking garages.
 
Miller says the price the driver pays is set by the parking garage or driveway owner. Parking Panda takes a 20 percent fee on whatever is charged.  “If they charge $10, we get $2,” he says.
 
Parking Panda has a few, small parking competitors in the area, says Miller.

”But no one is doing what we do, with parking garages and private parking.”
 
Source: Nick Miller, Parking Panda
Writer: Barbara Pash

Unleashed Technologies  is hiring 10 new full-time employees in sales and development. The additional staffing is the result of the Columbia, Md.-headquartered web firm’s arrangement to sell a web-based system that allows retailers to build and manage their online stores.
 
Unleashed Technologies designs and develops e-commerce web sites. The arrangement with SalesWarp, a storefront management system, “enables our customers to get all their e-commerce operations from one platform,” says Jen Silate, marketing manager of Unleashed Technologies.
 
Michael Spinosa is CEO of Unleashed Technologies, a leader in web and hosting solutions in the state and one of the state’s fastest growing web firms, according to Silate. Unleashed Technologies recently won three 2012 Blue Drop Awards, including web site of the year for its client, Eyemaginations. The awards are an international competition for companies that use the Drupal platform for development and design.
 
David Potts is CEO and founder of SalesWarp, developed by Baltimore's 6^th Street Commerce. SalesWarp manages pricing, order processing, shipping, inventory, SEO and customer data across multiple online stores from one system.
 
Silate says the arrangement allows Unleashed Technologies and SalesWarp to expand. "We will be reselling SalesWarp’s platform.”
 
Source: Jen Silate, Unleashed Technologies
Writer:  Barbara Pash   

The Maryland Board of Public Works approved $43 million in grants to local jurisdictions for clean water and Chesapeake Bay projects in the last two months.

Administered by the Maryland Department of the Environment, the projects are part of an ongoing effort to improve water quality for Marylanders and reduce nutrients in the Bay.

“We’ve updated 67 of the largest waste water treatment plants” in the state so far, says Jay Apperson, the environment department's deputy director in the office of communications.
 
State funding comes from the Bay Restoration Fund, which is paid for by the “flush tax.” The 2012 General Assembly passed legislation that doubled the tax to $30 per year for septic users and $2.50 per month for public water users.
 
Federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants, aka stimulus money, were also available. The state is allocated a certain amount of stimulus funding, and environmental department picked the recipients.
 
Grants went to:
Allegheny County: more than $1 million to City of Cumberland for sewer overflow storage facility.
 
Anne Arundel County: $5.4 million for Broadwater Water Reclamation Facility; $90,455 for Peach Orchard Stormwater Management; and $345,000 Rhode River/Cheston Point Living Shorelines.
 
Baltimore City: $2.5 million for the Montebello Reservoir Cover Project.
 
Harford County: over $33 million for Sod Run Wastewater Treatment Plant; and $2.6 million for Joppatowne Wastewater Treatment Plant.
 
“The water quality projects – for drinking water and waste water – are all designed to improve the quality of the waterways, including the Bay,” says Apperson, “and to ensure that Marylanders have as clean drinking water as possible.”
 
Source: Jay Apperson, Maryland Department of the Environment
Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 
 

A Beltsville IT storage firm has snatched up a 300,000-square-foot building in Glen Burnie so it can compete with companies in Northern Virginia, where 95 percent of the regional industry is located.

The AiNET CyberNAP facility will be the largest stand-alone data center in Maryland, Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., according to Darrell Tanno, AiNET's vice president of business development.

AiNET's paid $1.6 million for the Anne Arundel County building. The 19-year-old company has two other facilities in Maryland. 

Founded by CEO Deepak Jain, a Howard County native, AiNET operates a secure, cloud storage service based on proprietary technology.  Jain stated that CyberNAP already has commitments from several customers. The facility is located near Fort Meade and is geared to offer specialized security features.  

Tanno expects that in the next five to seven years, when the Glen Burnie facility is operating at full capacity, it will have an “economic impact of upwards of $1 billion annually, much of it staying in Maryland.” 
 
The Glen Burnie facility will house more than 10,000 equipment cabinets and support up to 1 million servers. The facility itself will employ about 20 people but Tanno says that the real job impact will be AiNET’s clients who, because of AiNET's increased capacity, can handle more contracts. New jobs would be primarily for skilled IT workers but support personnel would be needed as well, he says.
 
AiNET opened its first facility in 2003, a 50,000-square foot data center in Beltsville. The 20,000-square foot Laurel data center followed in 2008.
 
AiNET provides IT services to clients in the public and commercial/private sectors. Tanno says the current split is 60 percent public sector, 40 percent commercial/private sector. Public sector clients include universities and government. Virtually all of the government clients are through system integrators, he says.
 
Source: Darrell Tanno, AiNET
Writer: Barbara Pash
 

The number of women serving on corporate boards in Maryland-headquartered companies is on the rise.

The number of female board directors increased a full percentage point in 2011 from the previous year, according to a study by nonprofit membership organization Network 2000. The Baltimore organization promotes the advancement of women in exective positions.
 
Women accounted for 10.2 percent of corporate board members in 84 companies last year. To qualify, a company must be headquartered in Maryland and be publicly traded on one of the three major exchanges.
 
The 2011 figure was the highest since Network 2000 began its annual census in 2005. It is the only such tally in the state.
 
Network 2000 is a private, membership-based organization whose mission is to encourage the advancement of women in professional and executive positions.
 
The census is not broken down by industries. But Ellen Fish, president of Network 2000 and executive vice president of CFG Community Bank, says that in prior censuses, professional science-oriented companies tended not to have many female members. “That had a negative effect” on the figures, she says.
 
The census found that of Maryland’s five Fortune 500 companies, all had at least one female board member, for a figure of 18.4 percent. In a national census of 1,400 Fortune 500 companies, 16.7 percent had female board directors.
 
The report also found that 42 percent of the qualifying companies had no women on their boards. The number of women of color holding board seats remained the same from the previous census, at less that two percent.
 
“The census helps us accomplish our mission,” says Fish.  “It allows us to raise the awareness issue in talks and programs.”
 
Source: Ellen Fish, Network 2000
Writer: Barbara Pash

Loyola University Maryland is partnering with a California venture capital firm to fund new startups and help grow existing businesses in the Govans area of York Road. Loyola and Wasabi Ventures formed a business accelerator with an office in Govans, a neighborhood in Baltimore City.

Karyl Leggio, dean of Loyola’s Sellinger School of Business and Management, says the accelerator will help revitalize the nearby York Road business corridor.

Leggio says the university bought and renovated a two-story building in Govans that is serving as the local office of Wasabi Ventures and out of which the accelerator is operating. Loyola University faculty are offering advice on business plans and marketing. About 20 Loyola students per semester serve as interns at the accelerator.

Wasabi Ventures was co-founded by T.K. Kuegler, general partner and a Loyola graduate. Wasabi is providing professional staff to manage the accelerator. Through Wasabi Ventures and its partnering organizations, funding is available for startups companies, although funding amounts have not yet been established.

Leggio said funding would be based on the level of need. She said, for example, that Loyola has funded student ideas up to $25,000 in cash and services. However, startups and businesses that use the business accelerator may need more funding than that.

Leggio said that the accelerator is interested in technology concepts and startup companies that want advice and assistance to reach the development stage, as well as existing companies in the area that want to grow.

The accelerator is starting with seven staffers, and Leggio says it may hire additional staff as the need arises.

“We are looking to help any kind of business that is willing to locate in the Govans/York Road area, not necessarily technology,” she says.
 
Source: Karyl Leggio, Dean of Sellinger School of Business and Management, Loyola University Maryland
Writer: Barbara Pash